Read the latest Stockport Library News

This weeks’ newsletter has a variety of events and activities you can share as a family. If you know of anyone who would like to receive this newsletter from Stockport Libraries please let them know. They can subscribe by going to www.stockport.gov.uk and entering their email at the bottom of the page.

My Pet Story Day.

Local Author Corrinne Averiss joined us on our Facebook page for Storytime and read her book, My Pet Star. My Pet Star is a tale of friendship and learning to let go: a little girl finds a fallen star and playfully nurses it back to health. It’s the perfect selection for sparking discussions, encouraging laughter and celebrating reading together, whether that’s at bedtime or otherwise.

We wanted to share this with all our customers so the video is below. Please send this email on to anyone you think would be interested in watching this beautiful reading.

After you’ve read the story why don’t you enjoy this craft activity where you can help your children make their own pet star.

We wanted to suggest making a nature rainbow. This incorporates going out for a nature walk and creating a beautiful rainbow when you are home!

Creating a nature rainbow is a beautifully simple activity for all ages to try out. All you need are leaves, grass,windfall, and perhaps flowers, if you have a garden or park with fallen blossom nearby.

Step one – Go on a nature walk. This can be done in your own garden if you have one. Whilst outside, look for flora with different textures and colours in various sizes. (Flora is a fancy word for plant life.)

Step two – Collect leaves, grass, flowers and so on. For nature’s sake it is best to pick small amounts of flowers that are past their best or leaves that have already fallen. Blossom is easy to collect but be mindful not to squash any tiny beasties. Flora can be collected in tubs, buckets, baskets or paper bags – whatever you have to hand.

Step three – Once home, sort through your nature treasures and place into different coloured piles. Some flowers may have easy to remove petals, which is how we have created some of the rainbow layers.

Step four – On your driveway, pavement, path, table or floor (any flat surface will do), chalk an arc for the largest section of the rainbow. Start at the top and work your way down to the smaller sections as it works as a guide.

Step five – Decide which colour to start and place your chosen petals or leaves on the arc. Repeat until you complete the rainbow or run out of natural supplies! If you have any petals left, layer them on top of each other to create an extra layer of pattern and colour.

Step six – Admire your handiwork! Take a photo if you can, as the flora will begin to fade and decay fairly quickly. You may choose to press some of the flowers in between pages of old heavy books for use in a future project.

Further ideas – Incorporate a nature trail into the walk. Count the flowers in each arc. Label and draw the parts of each flower as you disassemble them. I am sure that you can think of many more ideas and ways of doing this activity. All images were created with my 5-year-old, she even had a go at taking the photos

We also wanted to share this chart from our friends at STEM Learning offering a wide variety of ideas you can all enjoy.

On May 21st, Rob Biddulph is going to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the World’s Biggest Art Lesson.

Rob will be live on YouTube at 4.00pm (BST) but in order for the attempt to meet Guinness World Records’ criteria we need participants – young and old – to register for the free lesson at www.artworldrecords.com and be there for the whole 30 minutes. Find out more